Speaking at the Offshore Wind Development Forum, Hendry is set to suggest up to 50% of future offshore wind farms such as those coming from the 33GW Round 3 programme could be built by UK companies.

However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said there would no legislation to back up such as aim as the UK is beholden to EU trade rules.

There has been controversy in recent years over the lack of involvement by British suppliers in offshore projects versus the amount of government investment.

When Vestas completed the 300MW Thanet offshore wind farm in September 2010, it was revealed only 20% of the construction jobs to build it were UK-based. The 1GW London Array scheme was even worse, with a Channel 4 report at the time suggesting UK companies only built 10% of it.

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